


Read or Die: The New Reading Software

by Prinzenhasserin



Category: R.O.D: Read or Die & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 21:37:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14411052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prinzenhasserin/pseuds/Prinzenhasserin
Summary: This fic was written using what the author thought the fandom might be about. It might have no bearing on reality.





	Read or Die: The New Reading Software

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/gifts).



> Coming to you from the creators of Write or Die, a new reading software that forces you to continue reading, or else...

You start reading. The text seems simple, uncomplicated. The sentences are direct. There’s not one extraneous word included. Reading them fills you with dread. You don’t know what to expect—you continue reading.

It's as if someone—something—sits behind you, waiting. 

Are you going to stop reading? What is going to happen? You think it isn’t going to be good. 

 

You pause, at a natural paragraph. The moment stretches; is it still a natural pause? You feel the shiver of a warning. The edges of the screen fill in with black dots.

 

Quickly, you continue onwards, letter after letter, word after word. What is going to happen if you fail your goal? Will the critters come out of the red framing…will the stylised figure at the top of your screen wave their sharp limbs at you and spear you through? The text goes on, continues. Have you stopped reading, and are only imagining what might befall you if you continue? Your anxiety rises. You shiver again. You think you are imagining things. How could a simple text program influence you like this? It’s just simple tomfoolery. None of these words mean anything deeper to you, and certainly, they could never lead to anything as sinister as you are imagining.

Yet still, you are reading the text. Something drives you to find out what happens when you finish. If, indeed, something should happen at all. Or if you should finish. 

 

You pause again. Has the tiny red creature on the banner moved again? You feel like it is going to jump out at you. And yet, you continue reading. How many more words will there be until the end? You skip ahead, maybe it helps if you know the end before you have finished. You hope it is soon. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you don't mind that I played around in a sandbox that has been explore thoroughly by better writers than me! What inspired me most was this writing program called Write or Die-- that punishes you if you don't fulfil your goal in the time span allotted. Wouldn't it be creepy to have something like that but for Reading?


End file.
